Rico was not found: nobody had seen any thing of him. They ceased to
search for him, and the folks soon began to find consolation in the
thought, "It is just as well for the little fellow, after all; he was
forsaken, and had no one to care for him."
CHAPTER X.
A LITTLE LIGHT.
Stineli grew more and more thin and quiet from day to day. The little
ones called out complainingly, "Stineli never tells us stories now, and
never laughs any more." Her mother said to her father, "Do you notice
how changed she is?" And her father replied, "It is because she grows so
fast. She must get a little goat's milk early in the mornings."
After this had gone on for three weeks or so, Stineli's grandmother
called the girl into her bedroom one evening, and said, "My dear
Stineli, I can very well understand that you cannot forget your friend
Rico, but you must try to remember that it is God's will that he should
be taken away; and that, as it is so, it is also the best thing for
Rico, as we must try to think."
At these words Stineli began to weep as her grandmother had never seen
her do before; and she sobbed and sobbed, saying, "The good God did not
do it: I did it, grandmother; and therefore I feel as if I should die of
anxiety. It was I who proposed to Rico to go to find the lake, and now
he has fallen into a ravine, and is dead; it has hurt him dreadfully,
and it is all my fault.
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